The present invention relates to connectors for performing the electrical connection between vehiclebody side wiring and vehicle parts having electric devices and, in particular, relates to a connector coupling structure which, at the time of assembling the vehicle parts to a vehicle body, introduces the connectors to a fitting position and corrects the position thereby to surely perform the connection of the connectors as well as the assembling of the vehicle parts to the vehicle.
FIG. 12 shows the connector coupling structure described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 8-310316A. This connector coupling structure is arranged in a manner that, when a bolt 91 for fixing an instrument panel 85 to a vehicle body 79 is fastened. by a not-shown nut from the vehicle body 79 side, a female connector 83 connected to a vehicle-body side wire harness 81 to be wired in the vehicle body 79 is connected to a male connector 89 of an instrument-panel side wire harness 87 to be wired within the instrument panel 85 and simultaneously the instrument panel 85 is fixed to the vehicle body.
The concrete arrangement of such a related connector coupling structure and the assembling operation thereof will be explained below. The fixing portion 93 of the vehicle body 79 for fixing the instrument panel 85 is provided with a projection portion 97 which is formed protrusively therefrom and has a not-shown bolt hole and a bolt insertion hole 95 communicating with the bolt hole. In contrast, the instrument panel 85 is provided with a fixing portion 99 which is extended from the left and right end portions of the instrument panel. The fixing portion is also provided with a bolt hole 101 and a projection portion 103 which is formed protrusively therefrom and has a not-shown bolt insertion hole communicating with the bolt hole 101. The both projection portions 97, 103 are provided on their outer peripheral faces with engagement projections 105, 107 for engaging with the connector, respectively. The housing 109 of the female connector 83 is provided with a fitting portion 111 which one side fitting with a male connector 89 is enlarged so as to fit with the housing 113 of the male connector 89. The housing 109 of the female connector 83 and the housing 113 of the male connector 89 have insertion holes 115, 117 for inserting the projections 97, 103 therein, respectively.
The assembling of the related connector coupling structure is performed in a manner that, first, the projection portion 97 of the vehicle-body 79 side is inserted into the insertion hole 115 of the female connector 83 and the projection portion 103 of the instrument panel 85 side is inserted into the insertion hole 117 of the male connector 89. Thereafter, the vehicle body 79 and the female connector 83 are provisionally assembled and also the instrument panel 85 and the male connector 89 are provisionally assembled while they are positioned so that the male terminal and the female terminal of the connector can be fitted. Then, the bolt 91 inserted from the bolt hole 101 of the fixing portion 99 of the instrument panel 85 is fastened by the not-shown nut from the fixing portion 93 side of the vehicle body 79.
However, in order to prevent the deformation of the connector housing and the breakage of the connector terminal occurred upon assembling, when provisionally assembling the female connector and the male connector, it is necessary to surely align the widths of the fitting portions of both the connectors and to position so that the both connector terminals are surely fitted.
Further, even after the both connector terminals are adjusted in their positions so that they are fitted surely, when the bolt is fastened excessively upon fastening the bolt by the nut, the connector housings and the connector terminals may be broken.
In this manner, the related technique has a problem that the workability at the time of assembling the vehicle parts such as the instrument panel etc. to the vehicle body is not good and so the assembling time increases.